Homeless expert lays out Sarasota County plan

Wednesday

Nov 20, 2013 at 10:21 AMNov 20, 2013 at 7:30 PM

Proposal includes oft-discussed options, but also adds controversial pitch for sheriff-run shelter

JESSIE VAN BERKEL

After years of an erratic approach to homelessness that even landed Sarasota the title of the nation's meanest city, the community has a clear path to get people into housing and the apparent political will to make it happen.

That path is outlined in a 55-page report from consultant Robert Marbut, who was brought in to address the very visible homeless population. And the will is evident in the interest of deep-pocked foundations, local agencies and politicians.

After four months of community meetings and speculation, much of Marbut's report is not unexpected. But the detail is striking and there are some pieces Marbut did not delve into on the speaking circuit.

His suggestions include:

• Locations for an adult shelter and two “villages” for homeless families, and aligning services and case management with those shelters.

• Street outreach teams made up of an officer and social service worker, and sensitivity training for all law enforcement.

• Create uniform, countywide ordinances and use them to get the homeless to choose services instead of jail.

“We've done a lot of talk about it. But now that we've hired the expert, we essentially have the roadmap, are we going to get in the car and drive?” asked Wayne Applebee, the county's new homeless coordinator.

One of the most controversial aspects of the report is the location of “Sarasota Safe Harbor,” a come-as-you-are shelter that would be run by the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office — similar to Pinellas Safe Harbor, which Marbut helped create. It would be an entry point to a system of services for homeless adults, even those who are intoxicated or high.

Marbut's four top suggested locations for the shelter were all in Sarasota, just north of downtown up to 17th Street. A couple of city officials have opposed having a shelter so close to the heart of the city.

The consultant's first choice is a city-owned property at 1330 N. Osprey Ave. near social services and the jail, which he said has ample buffer space from its surroundings.

Family housing

The report also includes new long-term housing ideas for families and homeless youth who are on their own.

While Marbut has often said the county needs short-term shelters for families in Sarasota, and Englewood or North Port, he has not touched much on options for families who need longer stays.

Some service providers worried that piece would be missing from the report.

Marbut outlines several agencies that are exploring longer term housing and need more support, including the Catholic Charities Diocese of Venice, Family Promise, Salvation Army and Sarasota YMCA. Those service providers need funding support and zoning flexibility, he said.

But he was particularly excited about “Family Village,” which the nonprofit Harvest House proposed. It would encompass a square block south of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Way between Tuttle Avenue and Chester Avenue in Sarasota.

Harvest House is in the process of buying the property, said Erin Minor, executive director or Harvest House Transitional Centers, and it would include 20 two- and three-bedroom apartments.

Some of those apartments would make up the emergency housing Marbut suggested, where families can stay for three to five days, Minor said. The others would be subsidized places were families could live for six months or a year.

The Family Village would be privately funded through donations and foundation support, she said.

A cul-de-sac by the Jubilee Center in Englewood, near 350 North Elm St., is a promising site for a similar South County Family Village, Marbut said.

Pat Knox, director of the Jubilee Center, which provides referral services, a food pantry and shelter on cold nights, said she suggested the spot to Marbut.

It has five duplexes — 10 units — where families could stay, Knox said. But she does not know who would buy and manage the properties.

“That's were the problem is,” she said. “That's why we're hoping he stays on longer. Giving suggestions is one thing, but then to just go and leave us with nobody spearheading and getting it going would be disastrous.”

The county may decide to keep Marbut on to oversee implementation and help come up with budgets for projects, which was not part of his scope of work for this report. But when he leaves, the region will still have Applebee spearheading the effort.

Applebee and Nancy DeLoach, another county employee, will oversee changes and help secure funding for the work ahead.

Presentations Monday

Which recommendations the community will adopt remains to be seen and there is no process yet for determining what is kept and discarded in the report.

But many community members are hopeful there will be a overhaul of the system. They noted the two new employees focused on the issue, and that the city and county jointly budgeted $40,000 for Marbut's fees, and $500,000 each next year to address homelessness.

That is a far cry from 2006, when a national organization dubbed Sarasota the meanest city after it banned people from sleeping on public or private property without permission.

For years, advocates and agencies have pushed hard to help people, but they are operating as individuals, Minor said.

It is not just the agencies who are disjointed.

While community members came together to discuss the meaning of homelessness and a grand plan to end it, police officers called themselves “bum hunters.” Ordinances that made it tough to live on the street were implemented in one city, but absent elsewhere.

If the county decides it does not have the money to do everything in the report, it should either chose to implement the full system for families — from case management to emergency shelter and long-term housing — or the system for adults, Marbut said.

“But don't cherry pick along one of those programs because then you're not going to get success,” he said.

Much of the document is about coordination and aligning services, so people have case management and are forced to get the help they need.

Stop handing out food on the streets and giving panhandlers cash, Marbut wrote, instead, align services with Sarasota Safe Harbor. Have two case management systems, one for adults and another for families and use a software program called the Homeless Management Information System for case management.

A couple of weeks or a month before the emergency shelters for families and adults open, start sending out homeless outreach teams made up of a social service worker and a police officer, Marbut said.

Sending those teams out earlier would be a waste of time, he said, countering City Manager Tom Barwin's previous suggestions that outreach teams are needed on the streets before the shelters are completed.

Marbut also advocated for a seasonal push to have snowbirds donate food and money to All Faiths Food Bank before heading north, to prevent shortages.

Marbut will present his report at three scheduled meetings Monday, and then will have a few days to refine it before submitting a final draft.

By Wednesday afternoon, Marbut said he had heard feedback from almost 20 people via email and text, almost all of which was encouraging.

One message, from City Commissioner Susan Chapman, was less positive.

“This consultant was not hired as a political consultant. As a result, he should omit his gratuitous opinion at the end of page 28,” Chapman stated in an email.

That page outlined Marbut's criteria for choosing sites of the adult homeless shelter. At the end, he stated:

“The main goal is to pick the site that is in the best overall interest of Sarasota and one that promotes the operational success of Sarasota Safe Harbor. The hope is the site selection will not get bogged down by NIMBY'ism nor political rivalries.”